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Author Notes:There is a lot of religious ceremony when making Nocino. The walnuts are picked on June 24th, the feast day of St. Giovanni. (In California the walnuts ripen a little earlier...at the end of May. ) The ingredients are all measured in amounts of 3, 7, and 21...all mystical numbers in The Church. Sister Marys Renata through SM Camilla would be horrified to know how little I remember of 12 years of Catholic School!) But, all ceremony aside, if you like walnuts , you will love this liqueur. You make it in late spring and it is ready to be filtered and bottled by Christmas. —dymnyno

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Serves 1 litre

21 green walnuts, cleaned and quartered

2 cinanamon sticks

3 vanilla beans

zest of an orange

1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cup sugar(depending on how sweet you like liqueur to be) I use about 2 cups

7 juniper berries

3 whole cloves

1 litre cheap vodka

Clean and quarter the green walnuts. They will be very soft and easy to cut. (wear gloves...walnuts really stain!)

If anyone is interested in making nocino...NOW is the time to be picking the green walnuts...if you make some , let me know how it turns out. Or, if you have any questions about making it, let me know if I can help.

Your Nocino sounds amazing, I love the sequence of the procedure. I live in a very very small village in the middle of nowhere in Tuscany and the carpenter in the village, who is one of my best friends, makes liqueurs out of every single fruit and even vegetables. I love going to his house to watch him making them and have learned to make them with him. His Nocino is also very good but he uses 90% alcohol that we buy here to make Liqueurs, Limoncello etc. and obviously is not sophisticated like yours because he doesn't add the spices and vanilla. I'll tell him about your recipe. Than you for sharing it.

haha! So much to love about this recipe! 1) the numbers (I'm an engineer, can't help it!) 2) that you have "lots" of empty Knob Creek bottles! and of course 3) the story about the friends! Guess I'll just have to try it! I'm assuming the vanilla beans are added with step 2?